Hockey

Many Indians may not know that Hockey is India's national game. India has won eight Gold medals at the Olympics so far, including six in a row-an achievement no other team has ever made. India were dominating the Hockey world for long in the early half of the last century. Since its Gold medal performance in the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Indian Hockey is on a downslide. Cricket became popular among Indians after the Indian team's unexpected win in the 1983 world cup. This coincided with the advent of television in the country. The world turned its attention from Test cricket to One dayers.Somehow,the Indian crowd started paying all its attention on Cricket. Some star cricketers emerged like Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar. As cricket reached the masses,Hockey suffered. The last two decades,India have been performing very badly at the World Cup and at Olympics. Players are not paid well, whereas some ordinary cricketers make millions. The Hockey association has to take a lot of blame too. Last few years,there has been some confrontation between the players and administrators. Currently,the Hockey world cup is going on. Many countrymen may not even know that the event is on-they are busy preparing themselves for the IPL. India started off nicely with an emphatic win against Pakistan,but lost two consecutive matches against Australia and Spain. They are now on the verge of exit. It is turning out to be another disastrous outing in the World Cup.Only a miracle can now save India.